An enterprise typically employs one or more computer systems that execute business operations, which can include, for example, manufacturing, marketing, development, order processing, and maintenance. The computer systems usually process and store data pertinent to the business operations of the enterprise. Such data, referred to in the instant application as enterprise data, can be implemented as data objects and, furthermore, represent a variety of business-related items. By way of example, enterprise data of an order processing computer system can represent a customer order, and enterprise data of a maintenance system can represent a piece of equipment that requires corrective maintenance.
Enterprise data used in one of the computer systems can be different in several respects when compared with enterprise data used in another of the computer systems. For instance, enterprise data of different computer systems can, for example, have different formats, be of a different type, and be subject to different constraints.
To facilitate analysis of enterprise data of the computing systems, one can implement a business warehouse. A business warehouse is generally a component that stores and organizes historical enterprise data extracted from the computer systems, thus facilitating analysis from an enterprise-wide perspective. Each of the computer systems from which enterprise data is extracted, referred to in the instant specification as a source system, implements its own respective extractor for extracting data and sending the data to the business warehouse.